On the alignment between system architectures and organizational structures

Tom Strandberg, Herb Burton, Dinesh Verma

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

    Abstract

    Enterprises of today need to be agile in how they manage systems over their life cycle. The design of system architectures has received a lot of focus as a means to facilitate agility. Less attention has been paid to the relationship of the system architecture to the organizational structures of all of the entities involved in the system life cycle. A common, but inadequate, statement is that "the organizational structure shall mirror the product structure". This research introduces processes as "middleware", along with system architecture and organizational structure, to be included in the trade-off for effective system life cycle management. Important additional factors that must be considered include informal organizational structures and the maturity of products, process and organizations. This paper suggests a model of the problem description and recommendations for further research that can be adopted by practitioners and researchers in the fields of both engineering and organizational design. The paper builds on a previous paper by (Strandberg et al 2006) and elaborates on, in particular, the aspect of maturity.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication16th Annual International Symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering, INCOSE 2006
    Pages133-147
    Number of pages15
    StatePublished - 2006
    Event16th Annual International Symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering, INCOSE 2006 - Orlando, FL, United States
    Duration: 10 Jul 200613 Jul 2006

    Publication series

    Name16th Annual International Symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering, INCOSE 2006
    Volume1

    Conference

    Conference16th Annual International Symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering, INCOSE 2006
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityOrlando, FL
    Period10/07/0613/07/06

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